Saturday, January 09, 2010

Moo Commentary on Romans (pp. 21-26)

"No, we have to have almost two weeks of Moo's introductory talk before we read Romans 1:1."

"Why, bro?"

"Well, if a commentary was hard to write, it should be hard to read, too. Otherwise it wouldn't be fair to the writer...."

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We've got the German names, but much more important, we've got the German term made famous and obligatory for "serious" students (Heilsgeschichte, p. 25).

We've got the "two 'eras,' or 'aeons'" (p. 26; let's call them B.C. and A.D. for short). We've got "participants," meaning, individuals who "participate in", among other things, both aeons. Perhaps so many people saying things like "in my B.C. days..." made this necessary. We've got things set up theologically, here, by the author, for the rest of our course, the whole year! What has he set up, and how good is it?

I think I can help get this idea of Moo's across, both in a value-neutral way, and for future reference. Imagine a piece of paper, writable on both sides, and every person ever created written on the back side, the side facing down, on this paper. The back side represents the idea that every person ever created has been written down here to represent a "B.C." existence. Human history is the time of the adding of names to this backside, beginning with Adam.

On the front side, there are some names, with more and more being added as time passes. "Heilsgeschichte" is roughly, the history of salvation, that time in which people are written onto the front side of this paper -- we can think of that act as representing to "be transferred" to the "new era," which is a differently characterized age (n. 93).

However, names have appeared since Adam. Moo says "All people start out in the 'old era.' ... But one can be transferred into the 'new era' by becoming joined to Christ." (p. 26).